Monday, July 26, 2004

Finally, I am back online again. My family and I went for a trip to Saudi Arabia, Germany, Netherland, France, Belgium, and Switzerland for 17 days. During that trip I had difficulties in getting Internet and telecommunication access . I actually wanted to stay away from the online world so that I can enjoy the trip. I am going to write my trip notes when I have the time. Now I am still cleaning my (e)mailboxes.

One of the things that surprised me is that I had difficulties communicating with people. Most of the people I met could not speak English, even in Europe! In fact, Europe is the worst since in Saudi Arabia some people speak Bahasa Indonesia. (Well, they actually can only speak certain words and numbers but good enough to make transactions.) Most people I met in Europe speak their own language(s).

Anyway ... I have to make some presentations. This week I will be at NICE (National Internet Conference and Education) in Jakarta. Have a look at http://www.nice2004.web.id/. See you there.

... Near the end of 1963, Bob (Floyd) came to visit me at Caltech, bringing fresh Maine lobsters with him on the plane. We spent several days hiking in Joshua Tree National Monument, talking about algorithms and languages as we went.
...
And we continued to exchange letters dozens of times with respect to this question of efficient networks for sorting. Whenever I had mail from Bob, I'd learn that he had gotten ahead in our friendly competition; then it was my turn to put TAOCP on hold for another day, trying to trump his latest discovery. Our informal game of pure-research-at-a-distance gave us taste of the thrills that mathematicians of old must have felt in similar circumstances, as when Leibniz corresponded with Bernoullis or when Euler and Goldbach exchanged letters.